282 Quotes About Rhetoric

One surefire way to fail to overcome an objection is to dismiss it out of hand.

It is more important to win over the heart of the spectator, than to win the argument itself.

I think we must leave very soon, or else stay the winter.”The window was open; the breeze passed over us. It was a trick of his, to set a sentence out like a plate on a table and see what you would put on it.

Anyone can win an argument. The trick is to avoid the argument.

They spoke different languages--languages of homonyms. "Ignorance," "hate," "bigotry," "oppression"--they sounded the same when spoken, but connotations were the new definitions. She and Szofi could never understand each other. The very words they chose would force them apart.

We need to enter the conversation willing to be wrong, willing to admit the limits of our own knowledge, willing to reconsider our evidence, sources, and premises. That is self-skepticism.

Wherever there is persuasion, there is rhetoric, and wherever there is rhetoric, there is meaning.

I shall disdain to cull my phrases or polish my style. I aim at being useful, and sincerity will render me unaffected; [...] wishing rather to persuade by the force of my arguments than dazzle by the elegance of my language

Rhetoric is simply the use of language to persuade, and it can be used to persuade us of falsehoods as well as truths.